conversations with jimmy page

Jimmy Page regularly tops guitar player polls in magazines, websites and TV countdowns, and most music fans would say deservedly so. But in the book Light And Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page, he says that his biggest contribution isn’t necessarily the instrument that his name has become synonymous with.

Decades after they called it quits, Led Zeppelin remain one of the most popular and enduring rock and roll bands of all time. Their biggest song, arguably, is “Stairway To Heaven,” from their 1971 untitled album.

Page used the bow on a few Yardbirds songs: “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor” and “Glimpses” from their 1967 album, “Little Games,” and then on Led Zeppelin’s 1969 self-titled debut (“Dazed And Confused” and “How Many More Times”). But he wasn’t the first British rock guitarist to take the bow to his axe.

“I went to see the Yardbirds play at this really stuffy student black-tie event at Cambridge University. The singer, Keith Relf, got quite inebriated and was being really punky. He was really staring down the establishment and put on a magnificent rock and roll performance. He was knocking things over and shouting obscenities at the audience. I really enjoyed myself.” — Jimmy Page

Brad Tolinski, the Editorial Director of Guitar World, Guitar Aficionado and Revolver has interviewed the press-shy Jimmy Page more than any other journalist. And now, he’s preparing to release a collection of those interviews in one volume, Light And Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page. Here’s the first in a series of excerpts of the book given exclusively to CBS Local.

Jimmy Page has always had an aversion to the press, and has never done a memoir (although he could certainly command a huge fee for writing a tell-all). But the next best thing is due in bookstores in October: “Light and Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page.: Written by Brad Tolinski, the Editorial Director of Guitar World, Revolver and Guitar Aficionado, who has interviewed Page more than any journalist, it touches on everything from his years as a session musician to his post-Led Zeppelin projects.